The past six weeks have been incredibly difficult, and I’ve had a hard time processing everything. It’s strange to go visit your child behind razor wire and amongst a sea of jumpsuits.
Joe seems to be doing okay. He does very well in controlled environments (hospitals, and apparently testing facilities at a jail type facility). They have completed their evaluation, which is a combination of perplexing, frightening and amusing. It is difficult to pinpoint what Joe’s exact issues are because of the amount of medication he’s on. He has been taking anti-psychotics half of his life, and over the past two years or so his medications have been changed repeatedly during his multitude of hospitalizations.
They have noticed what appear to be auditory hallucinations, an example being Joe hearing kids teasing and laughing at him when a guard said that no one was bothering him. He described doing things in the past that never happened (like going to gun shows). Joe has an obsession with weapons, but we’ve never been to a gun show. He’s not even allowed to own toy weapons. He also says that he believes in Jesus and really wants to become Jewish.
It took me two weeks of trying before finally getting permission to attend the inter-agency meeting. DJJ and Mental Health disagreed with the next steps to take (basically because of finances). DJJ thinks that Joe should go to Residential for a period of 90 days, be weaned off his medication and have baseline testing done while unmedicated. I strongly agree with this. Mental Health wants him to come home, see a behavioral interventionist once a week and see a counselor in school once per week.
I’m going to talk to Joe’s attorney next week and go over the evaluation and recommendations. Court is next Monday. My husband is deploying this week, so he will be gone before the Court date. Jane is having trouble dealing with brother being gone (and she isn’t able to visit) and Daddy leaving soon.
On top of everything going on with Joe, we have been trying to make it to a hospital out of state to see a family friend who is in the burn unit. It appears that the fire was a suicide attempt and everything was touch and go for awhile. Things seem to be looking a lot better, but a rather bad infection has appeared and is antibiotic resistant. We are hoping the infection clears soon and he continues with his amazing recovery (he had been given a 10% chance of survival).
The Judge next Monday will play a huge role in Joe’s future. Will the Judge agree with DJJ? What home-based services will be ordered? Will the Judge listen to Joe’s attorney and my recommendations for more intensive home services (like MST and IFS with 24 hour on-call assistance), or will the cheaper solutions be chosen? Will the Judge increase the quantity of time Joe spends with a behavior interventionist? Another week to go until I have these answers.
I want the help needed to keep Joe at home, attending his school adn avoiding hospitilizations and run-ins with law enforcement. I want to know when Joe is home everyone is safe. I want Joe to learn how to deal with the outside world appropriately and learn life skiils needed to be a productive adult, and hopefully happy adult. I don’t think these things are too much to ask for. He just needs a bit more hlep that most kids.
Fighting for Help: Parenting a Child with Mental Illness 